On April 13, 2015, in U.S. v. Slough, a U.S. federal judge sentenced four former private security guards for the killings of fourteen unarmed Iraqi civilians at Baghdad’s Nisour Square in 2007. One guard was sentenced to life in prison while three others were handed thirty-year sentences. In a press release, the United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries “endorse[d]” the sentences calling the case a “landmark trial” and reiterated that “[p]rivate military and security companies must always be held accountable for violations committed under international human rights and humanitarian law.” The men who worked as diplomatic security contractors for Blackwater Worldwide (now Academi) were convicted in 2014 on murder, manslaughter and weapons charges.